Still Here for You
by ChasingGhosts
Summary: “Gabi, I didn’t tell you I love you because I wanted you to say it back. I said it because I meant it. And it doesn't matter if its weeks, or months until you say it, I’m still here for you. Whenever. Got it, Montez?” Troy&Gabriella. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer:** Unfortunately, I _still_ don't own High School Musical. You should know not to ask me if I do; it just gets me depressed when I have to answer.

**Author's Note**: I am still alive! LOL.

For those that read, _Accepting the Inevitable,_ I know I haven't updated in months, and I'm really, really, _really_, sorry about that. Especially since I've told everyone who has sent me a PM, or who has reviewed, that I would update soon, and I haven't. Life just got extremely busy, and it was just one thing after another that got in the way… and all of that lead to me getting a little stuck. I know what I want to write, and what I want to happen, but it doesn't come out the way I want it to. So I'm hoping that if I write some oneshots that I'll get some inspiration back for the next chapter.

* * *

Lying on the carpeted floor, propped up on his elbows, Troy quietly inched his hand closer to his desired destination, trying to avoid rustling any of the objects that were scattered on the floor around him. Inch by tiny inch, he moved his hand a closer until it was just within his grasp-

"Troy Bolton, don't you dare touch that spoon," she warned, never taking her eyes off the page in front of her.

He groaned. "Gabi!" he complained childishly, drawing out her name as he did so. He wondered how she had known what he was doing without even looking up.

Grinning slightly, she finished off the paragraph she had been reading and looked up from her textbook to find an adorable pout playing across his face. "Oh no, that's not going to work with me," she spoke, laughing as she did so, at how cute he looked. His only response was to pout a little more, successfully making him look even cuter than before, but she didn't sway. "The plan was for you to come over and _study_. We've been up here all afternoon, already had dinner, and because _you_ were distracting me, neither of us have done any studying at all!" she said, poking him in the side as she did so.

"Hey, I didn't hear you complaining about how I was distracting you earlier," he replied, smirking back at her, wiggling his eyebrows playfully.

She simply laughed him off, knowing that he had won that round. "Sure. But you know the deal Wildcat: No study, no dessert. And you've done how many questions so far?" she teased.

He looked down at his page guiltily. "Two?" he offered sheepishly.

"In how long?" she prompted.

"Half an hour…"

She grinned at him pointedly.

"Okay, fine! But it's not my fault your mom's brownies are sitting _right_ there, and that the ice cream is melting, and that they're just begging for me to eat them!" She laughed at his dramatics. "Besides, not all of us can be complete geniuses when it comes to this chemistry stuff," he spoke, hoping she'd fall for the grin and complement he threw her way.

She rolled her eyes playfully, signifying that she hadn't been fooled. "Well if you had listened earlier when I was trying to explain it to you, instead of trying to do other things, then maybe you'd understand it a little better," she said, sticking her tongue out at him and grinning.

He grinned to himself as a new plan to get his hands on that dessert occurred to him. Rolling over, he shuffled close enough to whisper in her ear. "Maybe you could give me a little more incentive than just dessert to study then?"

Turning her head to face his, she grinned and closed the small gap between them, kissing him softly on the lips. Closing his eyes he grinned into the kiss, deepening it just a little, as one hand gently caressed her arm whilst the other hand set off to secretly retrieve the dessert bowl. With their lips still locked, he moved his hand quickly and quietly around the spot where he thought the bowl had been. Unable to locate the said bowl, he was just about to open his eyes and search for it when Gabriella pulled back from the kiss abruptly.

She giggled at him playfully as she moved away from him and out of his reach. "Looking for this are we, Wildcat?" she teased knowingly, as she fed herself a spoon of the vanilla ice cream.

He dropped his jaw slightly in amazement. "How do you do that?!" he asked incredulously.

"Aw, you're not as smooth as you think, Troy," she spoke, smirking at him, her eyes twinkling mischievously. This time, taking a piece of her mother's chocolate brownie and a bit of the ice cream, she spooned it into her mouth and closed her eyes as she exaggerated the taste of the already mouthwatering dessert. "Mmm. This tastes _so_ good," she said, tantalizing him.

"Gabi, don't tease me like that!" he said groaning, as he tried not to look at her, and how she was managing to make that dessert look ten times more tempting than it had ten minutes ago.

She watched him squirm, knowing exactly what she was doing to him, and held back the laughter that had been threatening to come out, grinning instead. "Hmm, and what are you planning on doing about that Bolton?" she said as she sucked the last remnants of ice cream off the spoon.

He blinked twice, as a grin slowly appeared across his lips. He knew what she had just done and it amazed him slightly at how she could be so innocent and playful one minute, yet flirtatious the next. He moved towards her quickly, catching her off guard and making her squeal in delight. "Well first, Miss Montez, I'm going to do this," he said as he took the spoon from her hand, and placed a spoonful of the dessert into his mouth, swallowing it quickly. "And then, I'm going to do this," he finished quickly as he bent his head towards hers and captured her lips in a searing kiss.

Moments later he leaned back from the kiss and grinned down at her knowingly. "How's that for a little payback?"

She smiled back, now somewhat shyer than she had been moments ago. "You taste like chocolate brownies and vanilla ice cream," she replied softly, licking her lips a little.

"So do you," he said, leaning back down to place a quick kiss on her lips again. Pulling back he fed her a piece of the brownie before playing a piece in his own mouth. "Mmm. Your mom's brownies could save the world."

She laughed at him once again and then accepted the spoon full of ice cream he offered to her. "We really should be studying, you know," she murmured quietly as she savored the taste of the ice cream in her mouth. In response he simply fed her another piece of the brownie. "Mmm, as much as I am enjoying you feeding me to distract me, we really should be studying," she attempted weakly, and he grinned as he watched her slowly giving in.

"What if I do this again?" he grinned then leaned down to kiss her, deepening it quickly.

She kissed him back just as deeply, knowing that there was no use protesting any longer. "Well, maybe just a little longer…" she let softly, and went to lean into the kiss once again when a voice came from downstairs.

"Gabi?! Sweetie, phone for you!"

They both let out a sigh. "Yeah, coming mom!"

She gave him a sympathetic smile as she began to get up. "Why does that always happen to us?" he asked, rolling his head back slightly.

"We must just be lucky like that," she said giggling softly. Leaning down quickly, she pecked his lips. "I'll be right back," she said as she scrambled out of her room, taking the dessert bowl with her.

"Hey! I saw that!"

Laughing as she turned around, she flashed him an innocent smile. "You'll get it back once you've done a few more questions! And now that your distractions are gone, you have no more excuses!" she called as she walked down the stairs.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs she found her mother holding the phone out to her apprehensively. Gabriella sent her a curious look before handing her over the near empty bowl, trading her for the phone. Smiling thankfully at her mother as she indicated she would refill the bowl for her, she spoke happily into the phone, "Hello?"

On the other end of the line she heard the person take in a sharp breath. "… Gabriella?"

The smile playing across her lips slowly began to fade away as she realized exactly who was on the other end of the phone.

**------**

Hanging up the phone, she slowly trudged up the stairs towards her room. Her mind was flooded with thoughts of the conversation she had just had, and a pained expression was playing across the features of her face. Shuffling into her room, she bit her lip as she saw Troy lying on the floor where she left him.

"Gabi, now that I've finished all these questions-" he began, before looking up and noticing her evident distress. Immediately he stood up and walked towards her, rubbing his hands up and down her arms comfortingly. "Gabriella? Are you okay? What happened?" he questioned, his concern for her obvious by the tone of his voice.

She didn't answer him straight away and instead looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears that threatened to fall. Immediately he knew that whatever had just happened had affected her significantly. Knowing she wasn't ready to answer just yet he kissed her forehead softly and brought her into a tight hug.

They stayed that way for a few moments before Troy pulled back and sat her down on the edge of her bed, as he knelt down in front of her, clutching her hands in his protectively. Looking up at her he continued to rub the back of her palms with the balls of his thumbs, waiting until she was ready to speak.

She sniffed softly, trying to prevent any tears from falling. "That was my dad," she spoke softly, her voice quivering ever so slight as she did so.

"Your dad?" he questioned slowly, a little confused. "But I thought you hadn't seen him in years?"

She bit her lip. "I haven't."

"But how?" he went on, still not completely understanding.

"My mom; apparently she's been sending him letters all these years, keeping him updated about me. I didn't even know she was in contact with him at all; she's never mentioned him before. He said um… he said he was going to be in town this weekend," she paused for a moment, trying to steady her emotions by concentrating on the movements of Troy's fingers, as they rubbed slow circles across the back of her hands. "He wants to see me," she added, even more quietly than she had been speaking beforehand.

Troy was lost for words. There had been very few times that they had ever talked about her father. Often, when the topic arose she would hastily change the subject, so he didn't actually know the full story about him, in fact, the only thing he really knew was that Gabriella hadn't seen him since she was six. But he knew she missed him sometimes. There were times when he'd be venting about a disagreement he'd had with his dad, and he'd catch her with this far away look in her eyes, as if she wished she could have a fight with her dad, before she responded with a line like, 'He's just doing what he thinks is best for you,' or something along a similar vein, to calm him down.

"Oh wow," he said simply, still unsure of what to say.

She dropped her gaze to fall onto their hands. "Yeah," she agreed quietly.

She remained quiet for a few moments before she spoke up again. "He just left, you know," she spoke so quietly he almost didn't hear her. "I remember it was like any other night. He tucked me into bed, promising me that we'd go to the park together tomorrow, because it had been raining and I was upset we hadn't been able to go," she stopped, and breathed in deeply. "Then he kissed me goodnight and said he loved me. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it, but when I woke up the next morning he was gone."

She looked up into his eyes. "He didn't even say goodbye, Troy," she added before letting the tears she had been holding in flow freely.

Standing up from his position on the floor he wiped away the first few tears from her cheeks, and then went to lie down on her bed, taking her with him so that she was now sprawled across his torso. With one arm wrapped protectively around her, and the other brushing her soft brown locks, he let her release all her pent up tears, whispering soothing, "shhh's" into her hair every so often. The pair laid there for a while until the tears she had cried into his shirt were half dry, and her breathing had returned back to a steady pace.

"Why now Troy?" she muffled into his chest.

Troy honestly had no idea what to respond with, but it didn't matter, as she went on before he could reply. "Why couldn't he come back before, when I needed him?"

She looked up from his chest. Her eyes were red and slightly puffy, and there were faint markings down her cheeks from the tears. His heart ached at the sight before him, as he brushed her cheek lightly with the pad of his thumb. "I don't know, Gabi," he said softly, wishing that he had an answer for her.

She sniffled softly. "How can he just turn up one day, asking me to see him, and just expect that I'll come running back into his arms? It's not like he was gone a week. Its years and I've never heard a word from him."

"Does that mean you're not going to see him?" he questioned curiously.

She sighed. "You know, I used to dream of him coming back when I was younger. Every year until I was ten, my birthday wish would be for him to come back, for a phone call, a birthday card… anything to show that he remembered my birthday. Any sign that he remembered me," she recalled dismally, blinking a few times to stop the tears that had already begun to form, from falling again. "But it never happened, so eventually I gave up on him. I never thought that I'd have a chance to see him again."

Listening intently, he shuffled around so that he was now eye level with her. "Isn't that more of a reason to see him now?" he said softly.

"I… I don't know if I can," she let out, her voice trembling.

He spoke quietly and carefully, holding onto her hands tighter. "What do you mean you can't?"

She bit her lip. "What if he's got this new family? With a daughter who's beautiful, and smart and perfect? What if… what if he's completely replaced us?" she said quietly, swallowing back a sob.

Troy quickly moved his hands to cup her face. "Hey, hey. Are you saying that you aren't all those things? Because as far as I can see, you're all that and more. Where's all this coming from, Gabi?"

She turned broke their gaze. "I just don't understand why he had to leave in the first place," she said slowly, trying to control her breathing.

"Baby, look at me okay?" Reluctantly she did so. "This wasn't your fault. You were only six, it couldn't have been," he said strongly. His gaze was so intense and so sure that she couldn't help but concede; Slowly she nodded. "Now you're gonna see him this weekend and show him exactly what he missed out on. You can do this."

She opened her mouth to protest.

"Gabi, you can do this. Where's the confidence you had when you dumped East High's basketball captain because he was being an A grade jackass?" he said lightly, trying to coach he insecurities out of her. It had been months since the events of the summer had occurred, but even so, he still felt horrible for how he had acted back then and he had been subtly trying to redeem himself to her and all their friends. Even if they had forgiven him. He knew that if she passed up this opportunity to see her dad again, she'd regret it later. And if there was some way of convincing her to go, he'd try it.

She gave him a weak laugh, as a small smile played on her face. "You were a pretty big jackass."

He smiled back, thankful to see her smile again, even if it was a small one. "You can do this Gabriella; go show him how amazing you've become without his help. I'll even come with you if you want me to," he offered.

Instantly she perked up. "Would you? Please? I wouldn't normally ask but… I don't think I'll be able to do this alone."

He brought her hands up to his lips and kissed them. "Of course."

She let out a breath of relief, feeling much better about the situation now.

"So when are we seeing him?"

"I think he said Friday night," she said as she snuggled into his chest comfortably.

"Friday? You mean I have to cancel all my fabulous plans for my girlfriend so I can meet some guy?" he joked playfully.

"Bolton, I hardly think coming over to my house and eating my mother's brownies and popcorn as we watch a movie counts as 'your' fabulous plans," she retorted, smirking at him, trying to forget her insecurities.

He grinned back. "And there she is. There's the girl I know and love," he said easily.

She stilled as the words came out of his mouth, and a warm sensation flowed throughout her body. She breathed in deeply. "Did you… did you just say what I think you said?" she questioned quietly, looking up at him.

He felt anxious for a moment, until he looked into her eyes and knew that the words he had spoken were true. The words may not have been planned, but they were certainly true. "Yeah. I did," he said confidently.

Her forehead creased and she closed her eyes. "Troy… please don't say it if you don't mean it," she spoke carefully.

He breathed in slowly, not hurt that she hadn't reciprocated his feelings, the fact that she hadn't said it, and he wasn't hurt simply convinced him even more that he loved her. "Gabriella," he said slowly, making her look back at him, "I love you. I do."

She sucked in another deep breath, feeling that warm sensation all over again. She hesitated, she knew how she felt about him, but there was this tiny voice of insecurity in the back of her mind. With their hands still intertwined, she moved from his chest and sat up, Troy mimicking her movements. "Troy, I-" she began only to be cut off by a familiar tune coming from Troy's phone.

Jolting from the disturbance, Troy quickly moved across the room and answered the phone. "Hello?… Oh right. Sorry. Got caught up I guess… Yeah, mom, I'll be right home… Okay, bye." Closing his phone he glanced over at her feeling slightly awkward at how their conversation had been interrupted.

"Gotta go?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. Curfew's eleven, and it's almost twelve now," he said as he gathered up his textbooks.

She glanced at the clock. "Oh, right. Sorry, that was my fault."

He leaned over the bed towards her, "I'd choose you over being in time for curfew any day," he said as he kissed her on the forehead. She gave a small smile, watching as he left her room, and once he did she flopped down on her bed with a huff.

**------  
**

"You can do this, Gabi," she said to herself as she looked at her appearance in the mirror. "You can do this. Even without Troy," she tried to convince herself.

Friday night had come, and to say the past few days had been a little tense would be an understatement. Since their interrupted conversation, things between the pair had been a little awkward. They were still talking, but she had been much quieter, and he watched her closer than he usually did. Their friends had commented on their lack of physical contact, but they simply shrugged it off.

Needless to say, Gabriella wasn't entirely sure if Troy was going to be coming tonight. She had hoped he would, but she didn't want to get her hopes up just in case.

Grabbing her bag, she moved down the hallway and bid her mother goodbye, who whispered 'good luck' to her as she gave her a hug.

Opening the front door she came to a halt when she saw Troy leaning up against the post. "You're here."

He grinned, "Well I do remember promising my gorgeous girlfriend that I would be here."

She grinned back widely before moving towards him and kissing him deeply. She wrapped her arms around his neck as his moved to her waist, to bring her closer. The kiss deepened even further until they had to pull back to catch their breaths. With their foreheads touching, Gabriella opened her eyes to find his staring back at her, she couldn't help but smile. "Thank you for coming."

"I couldn't just leave you high and dry, could I?" he winked, as he took her hand into his, leading her to his truck.

"Well, after the past few days, I didn't think…" she trailed off.

He turned to her, giving her a quick peck on her lips before he released her hand to unlock the car door for her. "Hey, don't even worry about it, okay?"

"Troy," she began before he stopped her.

He leaned his back against his truck, holding her hands in his tightly, as his bright eyes stared deeply into hers. "Gabi, don't even think about it. I didn't tell you I love you because I wanted you to say it back. I said it because I meant it."

She broke into a wide grin and her eyes twinkled as she heard the three words once again. "It's not that I don't, I _do_," she tried to reassure him, "It's just, it might take me a little longer to say it," she replied softly, as if questioning whether he would be okay with that.

He smiled back fondly, "Take all the time you need. It doesn't matter if its weeks, or months until you say it, I'm still here for you whenever you need me. Got it, Montez?" he smirked, winking at her.

She let out a short laugh. "Yeah, got it Bolton."

He grinned. "Good, now get in," he said, opening the door for her to get in.

She rolled her eyes slightly, but grinned back widely as she so. Sitting down in the front seat she indicated for him to come closer. As he leaned his head down to hers she quickly brought her lips to his, kissing him with all the love and passion that she could muster, then pulled back and pushed him away lightly. Watching as he closed her door, with a wide grin on his face, she couldn't help but smile as well, knowing that she was more in love with him now than ever.

_----_

_Even when I'm not giving enough, and I'm taking too much  
You're still there for me.  
Even when I got nothing at all, and I'm ready to fall  
You're still there for me.__  
__  
Even when I can't be there for you,  
__You're always there for me._

- Still there for Me, Corbin Bleu and Vanessa Hudgens.

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Author's Note**: I'm not entirely pleased with how that came out. It's definitely not up to my standards anyway. 

After watching _High School Musical 2_ again, I was trying to come up with a situation where Troy was there for Gabriella, since she's the one that makes it easy for him by coming back to him at the end, no questions asked. I'm not sure about you guys, but that just doesn't sit right with me. So in a sense, this was about Troy proving himself to her, I guess…

Not sure if that was clear or not, but as always I _love_ to hear your thoughts on it! So click that little box and review for me, please!

As I said earlier, I'm having troubles with _Accepting the Inevitable,_ and I refuse to write another chapter for that one until I'm somewhat confident that it won't turn out completely crap. So there may be a few more oneshots from me until then, sorry.


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